Craig Lowndes would have breathed a sigh of relief after he sailed into an easy win this afternoon to extend his winning streak at the Coates Hire Ipswich 300. In what was an entertaining race, the TeamVodafone driver looked unfazed for the entire 45 laps…which wasn’t quite the same story for his team mate Jamie Whincup!

Winterbottom fought for the blue oval and came in 1.7 seconds behind Lowndes while Whincup rounded off the podium in third.

The race started interestingly, with a disaster start for Whincup seeing him ending up somewhere around P8 during the first lap.

The first two laps were full of drama and jostling, with the safety car coming at on Lap 2 after an incident involving Reynolds on turn one. The opportunity was then taken for to pit Whincup early, put on soft tyres and fight for positions for the rest of the race.

Pushing hard from the back of the front pack (extremely hard, consistently putting in fastest lap times) Whincup found himself in third by the chequered flag. Fabian Coulthard came in fourth, while veteran Russell Ingall made it into fifth. Davison, Van Gisbergen, Caruso, Slade and Johnson completed the top ten.

At the other end of the table, Villeneuve equalled his last performance and came in 24th after some contact with Taz Douglas on lap 40, causing him to lock up the brakes and take a short spin on the track.

There was only one DNF, with Jonathon Webb retiring early.

Lowndes, clearly happy with the result, is simply looking forward to tomorrow’s race.

"I want to say the car was perfect but I know there is some more improvement in it tomorrow," said Lowndes.

Let’s see how it goes tomorrow then! Will FPR be able to challenge the winning streak? Stay tuned!